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Topic: Jialong Data Haven (Read 9100 times)

If you're reading this you have been extended membership by a trusted administrator, your privileges can be just as easily revoked so read the rules and keep it civil.

• Rule 1: What gets posted on Jialong stays on Jialong. No cross posting of content or information to other data havens or runner boards permitted. This is a resource for Hong Kong based operatives, it's not a place for the last gwailo off the sub-orbital to skim for local information.• Rule 2: Don't hack the haven! Any attempts to tamper with or hack the haven's nodes will result in a response worthy of the board's founders.• Rule 3: Anything the administrators view as unhelpful to the Haven's mission will result in access termination without warning. You have been warned!

<ooc> this is a place for our group to post in character after-action reports, personal development and backgrounder info and intra-session RP. Please mark any out of character posts with <ooc> at the start of the post.

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<entry>Tog was pleasantly surprised the Tiny had agree to such a large loan, $160,000 Nuyen wasn't chump change. He had the put the money to work and was now laid up in a Decko's ‘ware clinic recovering from surgery that had implanted a whole drek load of systems simultaneously, probably the most ’ware Tog had had installed at once. And all of it amazingly useful…

It would take quite a while to recover, combined with the time he needed to complete his initiation he would be offline for about 3 months.He just hoped the team would still be around when he was operational again, 3 months was a long time on the street…Like

<entry>Fun with Vocal Modulators..It took a while to source such a high quality modulator but man has it been worth it. Out drinking the other night Tog mimicked the voice of a large orc sat at the bar to continuously order drinks from the robo-barkeep on his tab. The 30 year old Glenlivet must have put quite the shock on the tusker when he cashed out at the end of the night.

<entry>The past few months had been at once grueling and boring. With all his waking hours spent recovering from multiple surgeries and completing his initiate training with the magically active members of the Toastmasters he barely had enough time to call out for food.Which made it all the more surprising when he found himself with enough time to run out to the gun range for an hour and pop caps into some paper and gel targets.As the array of targets popped out and swung towards him in randomized sequences he fired his weapon dry, reloaded and emptied a second clip without thinking much about what he was doing. The synergy between his recently installed third layer of Cyberdyne Muscle Toner, Gene-netics Reflex Recorder and his magically enhanced agility all conspired to render conscious thought mostly irrelevant. When he looked up all of the 12 targets, spread out across a 60 meter range, were shot through the bullseye. Tog was impressed, he should have tipped Decko more,

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<ooc> this is the magical group Jiao might be interested in joining ;-)

International Order of the ToastmastersMembers (est.): 2000+Dues: 100¥/yearAreas of expertise: The use of magical abilities to enhance public speaking in the 6th world. This encompasses research into the use of spells, adept abilities, foci, summoning, possession and any other magical enhancements to the art of social interaction.Formed in 2053 by a splinter group of the commonplace mundane public speaking group Toastmasters International the International Order of the Toastmasters is now a completely separate organization focussed on the research and discovery of new magical methods for enhancing the art of social discourse.As an open society, the I.O.Tas (as they refer to themselves) accept all applicants provided they are awakened in some way.They have chapter houses in most large urban conurbations around the world that any member can access to rent a function room, host a presentation or conduct research. Each chapter house has a job board where non-members can hire members for specific jobs usually difficult negotiations or important speaking engagements that require the specialized talents that only a magically active speaker can provide.IOTa draws many members from the areas of Religion, Law and Politics and membership is not exclusive (you can be a member of another society so long as you inform IOTa

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Jiao <ooc> who most PCs know as Ping </ooc> ran her hands across the wooden table in her upscale apartment. Normally she would go without thought but this run especially spooked her. She had become the thing she feared the most. Beholden, with a debt. Wanting something. A million thoughts ran through her mind, but they all took her back to that night. That night in the Walled City. Where she told herself she'd never be again.

The toxicity of the area overwhelmed her as it did when she was a child and her bio mom Fan <ooc: now deceased for those without Jiao's backstory> took her here to see some of her bio grandparents. She hated this place then and the familiar nausea creeping up when she thinks about that place let alone in it is just blah. But more than the nausea was the feeling of uselessness the Walled City represents. <ooc > This is not a jab at the DM or a player or mechanics. </ooc> The Walled City feels like it takes away a lot of her power, beauty, and independence each time she goes and this last run was no different. Unable to wear her trademark dress due to the hostility of the area, she clunked around in what was probably a subpar armor suit and just made sure no one was coming at kept the little boy safe. That boy was her ticket back to beauty. During that time she had time to think, and thinking is her worst weapon. She was doing all this for a coin. An Elven coin. Was she really the person to sacrifice everyone just to let the elves have a beauty namesake? Had she really become one of the racist pricks she seduces on a bimonthly basis to help pay the bills? Had so much time with the higher ups that don't have these types of problems really corrupted her that much?

The absence of gunfire brought Jiao back from her thoughts and she tried to make a guy sleep long enough for us to be able to interrogate later. Apparently however, Cabbie, the local driver had other ideas and proceeded to cap him after he was knocked out. Something about not wanting to wait 2 hours or something like that to interrogate him. Honestly Jiao had quit paying attention once she saw Cabbie commit voluntary murder. Cabbie was used to getting things done with time and having the guy awaken to that horror would have been a great tongue loosener. "So much for diplomacy..." Jiao pondered and the group trudged along the path to the coin led to by this dragon and little boy team.

Once finally there, the group saw people who hoarded trash for beauty. Trash??!? Trash?!?!?! How the fuck do I trade trash? It's not like a well mannered high society problem solver, like myself, keeps trash handy. This entire place was disgusting, she shouldn't be surprised that they hold trash as value. As much as she was dismayed, Jiao went to the astral because as much as trash is beauty is fucked up, no humans are generally that messed up. Jiao saw the signs of tell tale astral mistakes and people beyond hope of repair. It was pitiful. It is in situations like these Jiao really wants to end their miserable lives, but is a consummate professional so killing as few people as possible for her goal is needed. While these characters hoarded trash they weren't hurting anyone.

That is until serial killer astral fuckup boy. The guy hoarded body parts...Everyone saw him and Cabbie killed him with her murderous streak of course, but when people returned to normal (later on.) It would have been hard to say what that murderous serial killer would have came back to. Could they have taken that back? And in what state did we actually leave those people after the mission? Telling the one we went up to the spirit with it was a hallucinogen was the easy way out. She didn't have to explain that these people did things. They could piece it together later, but this eats at Jiao leaving people like that. She had no choice though. It was about the coin. That damned coin that she loves to love and hates to hate. The one that has to get back into Elven hands. The coin she'd trade almost anything to have with her. A couple of round pieces of metal with some kind of magical properties.

It was getting to be too much, so she cracked open a bit of wine and thought back on the combat. The part that actually was combat to her, the spirit. Seeing the group so useless and knowing it was her job to step up as the mage and kill it, Jiao tried banishing it, but her problems and the problems of the walled city kept her from doing it. It's like everything she tried was with one arm behind her back. She revealed herself as magical, why? And Cabbie got her high....Why? I am a problem solver, spells....let someone else handle that. Unfortunately, Jiao may not have that luxury. Her magic is now out and exposed to the group for some bauble. Eventually Jiao would need to check back on those people, or something because this is eating her up.

Jiao has gone about things alone or had people work for her in order to solve things, but this teamwork thing, thrust upon her by the Triad, is new to her. In order to keep her lifestyle, she needs them. Jiao is slowly becoming a part of the cog rather than above it. Normally, this is when she would disappear a bit, but that dang coin. With accepting her fate, Jiao ran her hand across a couple of papers she had in front of her desk. One of them described some of the basic features of the Toast Masters. A group of faces who use their magic towards their gains...An outward acceptance of the thing she tries to hide. But maybe they could teach her HOW to hide it. Very important indeed. Especially for her con stuff. And especially useful so she doesn't go off and intimidate really powerful spirits...That rampant destruction of beauty just set her off. She needs a way to maintain her face persona.

Her eyes then glazed over towards the other piece of paper. The Astral Space Preservation Society. An organization started by a certain Dragon that is tattoo'd on her leg rather quite prominently. This group prevented the events similar to what was done by the Toxic Spirit from happening over and over again. While she had admiration for D <ooc: what she calls the dragon since his name is so damn long. > does that mean she has to follow and join its membership? Hell, this dragon gave money and stuff to the Tir clans across the world as well as helping to restore the world to beauty with his last willl. It's bequeathal of money to the security organizations towards non lethal combat is inspiring. Plus in order to hide herself one may have to know herself.

Jiao now was pacing across the floor in her living room, almost empty wine glass in hand and a very full wine bottle in the other. Setting them back down on her table, she exclaimed out at no one and everyone:

"FUCK IT. I'm getting laid."

Switching into her nicest civilian barhopping dress, Jiao went to her favorite haunt dressed to the nines and partied the night away, resulting in a quick nameless lay. Something to remove herself from her problems. She honestly doesn't remember the name or the gender of the person she slept with, just that it was enough of a distraction from the things that bug her in this world. The next morning though, during her walk of pride (or shame as some may call it.) She returned back to the paperwork spread out on her desk.

Stalling as long as possible, Jiao took a shower, had an ornate breakfast, similar to that of a last meal before once again deciding what to do about her future. It wasn't so much the money that bothered her, but belonging to a collective when she already subscribed to the religion of the Path of the Wheel that helped preserve and protect Elven heritage and what would happen if those goals conflict.

"D forgive me..." She whispered as she lit her research on the Astral Space Preservation Society (but not her work on D) on fire with a cigarette lighter. She just couldn't commit to a group that protected the astral when she saw what she'd be up against...And against that...alone. Part of preserving astral space would be that type of combat and if she was younger she could have done it but now, she couldn't take out those spirits responsible through combat. Instead, she'd need a way to talk with them. So the same damn thing of losing control to a spirit did not happen again. There was only one group that could provide that.

Fancy pen in hand, Jiao filled out the paperwork to join the IOTAs. One little piece of non electronic paper...She could go it alone. She could just do what she's always done. But what she's always done brought her here and had to change.

She wanted to not be a racist asshole. Not leave people who she might secretly be caring about out to dry for a piece of metal. Show people why talking instead of killing is inherently better. Maybe then she'd get her bar back or destroy those responsible for taking it from her birth mother. Maybe then she'd be the leader she wants to be and regain control.

Jiao has finally seen ugly and wants it gone. Filling out a second copy, she stuffs it inside a hidden compartment in her bed and then makes it again to look nice and pretty and neat and sends out the completed version of the application to the IOTAs. Until she hears back she wonders what will come next for her. <ooc> Too long didn't read? Jiao attempts to apply for the Toastmasters</ooc>

Tog was born Topo Fugue in 2051, ostensibly the only child of Renraku, Seattle corporate citizens Tommy and Alyssa Fugue.<Tog does not know that he was actually vat-grown as a prototype Transhuman, then placed with his “family” at birth>As their only child they doted on him in his early pre-teen years, hoping that he would follow their footsteps to become another successful wageslave for Renraku <they were not aware of his origin and had sworn to not reveal his adopted status to him>.When Topo hit puberty and began to demonstrate uncanny abilities to change his appearance at will Renraku’s counter-espionage division selected him for early training as a “Corporate Specialist”. Tommy and Alyssa were of course, ecstatic at the honor while Renraku’s counter-espionage division was even more ecstatic to discover that one of their prototype Transhuman’s was magically active!What followed was a grueling training and bioware installation regimen that spanned 10 years. On completion Topo was assigned to an evaluation mission to extract an MCT researcher from their corporate enclave.Using all of his training and installed suite of bioware he masqueraded as the target himself and managed to infiltrate his private suite without raising suspicion. Once inside Topo secured the target in a room service cart and began the exfiltration process, still disguised as the target. As he was exiting the suite he ran into the pre-teen daughter of the target, who thinking Topo was her dad home from work early ran to shower him with affections. Faced with the decision of leaving the girl without her dad Topo made the split-second decision to extract them both. Holding her hand and pushing the room service cart loaded with the target he made for the facility’s exit. Somewhat surprisingly he made it out of the campus and to the extraction point where dust-off awaited in the form of a Chinook whirlybird.The corporate Johnson in the Chinook reviewed the situation, drew his sidearm and put a bullet through the head of the daughter leaving Topo standing shocked as her blood covered his face. The Johnson, noticing Topo’s horrified expression explained his actions matter-of-factly:“We don’t extract kids, they have no value. She’ll be worth more as collateral damage from the firefight MCT put up trying to halt the extraction. That story should stoke the target’s anger towards his previous corporation and make his assimilation into Renraku that much easier. Don’t worry we’ll get him another kid.”At this point Topo’s mind revolted and he reacted on pure anger, drawing his pistol and quickly putting the Johnson down before he could even register the betrayal.Turning his back on the chopper Topo knew he would never be a good Renraku citizen and it’s likely they would always be looking for him to recover their investment. Where else would a magically active prototype Transhuman loaded to the gills with military grade bioware go but the shadows?

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<ooc>Jiao's backstory. I also take no credit for the image. The artist I found does some great work: http://jarow.deviantart.com/gallery/. This is pretty much how Jiao looks except the missing dragon tattoo.</ooc>[spoiler=TLDR version]Born in a life of luxury Huan Jiao (In English Jiao Huan -- Last name is first in Chinese) means beautiful joy. The Huan family were a married wage slave couple immersed in corporate politics. It was a loveless marriage, but one of convenience. If it ever broke apart there would be hell to pay for each of them. The pair had an understanding that they could have dalliances on the side as long as each of them knew if kids resulted they could make it work. Chao, the husband, loved this as he had a roving eye, and Ling loved the prestige this allowed her with less work. Sort of like putting up with a person's gambling habit except instead it was her husband's sex addiction.

Jiao is the result of one of those such unions. Specifically the owner of a respectable bar named the Rounded Keg, Fan. Chao (human) ended up leaving his credit stick for dalliances at home and accidentally brought his true credit stick. Not wanting the evening's events trackable as it could bring harm to his political marriage, he decided to bed the bartender. Due to his shame, he never came back to the bar, and therefore never knew of the child he had made. His wife however, who was stalking him, did. He had broken the cardinal rule of telling her of the dalliances before and she ended up switching the credit sticks that night to try to keep him honest. Ling soon frequented the Rounded Keg a lot and helped Fan carry Jiao to term as some strange things started happening around the bar. People kept being able to mysteriously avoid hangovers on occasion. At first, Fan didn't even realize she was pregnant with Chao's child because of no morning sickness, but when she put on the weight it became undeniable and too late to do anything about it.

Based on being raised by an economical bartender, Fan (elf), and being given luxuries by Ling(human), she learned the value of money and the value of looking damn fine. Jiao never really settled for anything less. On her 18th birthday, Ling sprang for an initation into a magic school for Jiao to teach her the basics and help her make something of herself. She had the gift, as evidenced by her intentionally curing hangovers at the bar, but no daughter of Ling's would be stuck at the bar. Damn it, her daughter would "be someone", even if she couldn't do it legally. Ling also invested as much as she could into a real SIN for her without her husband finding out. Where Chao had his women, Ling had her daughter in Jiao.

It was at this initiation that Jiao ended up going on her first run by listening to a man who needed out of his relationship. Most people laughed at his cowardice, but Jiao sensing a pay day tried to make him feel better about it. In fact, she was rather able to "convince" his partner that she should be looking elsewhere for her fun. This man ended up being a corporate Johnson who set her up with all sorts of solo runs without going through a fixer. She worked as a fixer a bit with him for a time, meeting another fixer in the game, but mainly she loved the solo run. As she leveraged her magic she routinely got paid to do the advanced scouting for other people's runs in stral Space, or to extract information from a pliable target through less obtrusive means. This helped maintain her lifestyle but moved her further and further away from Hong Kong and she spent a solid year in China, picking up a few bits and pieces of the language.

After that year in China, she received a communique that her mother Fan had died. She came back as fast as she could, but it was too little too late. Social "nobles" and people with purchasing power had inflitrated the bar. Because of her extensive use of the makeover spell in her prior runs and not having a picture of a childhood, she looked like an imposter when trying to claim her own birthright in the bar. Sure she had the dragon tattoo she had gotten in her rebellious youth but it was distinctive. Anyone could copy that. She had nothing to prove it. Sure Ling knew it was her, but there was nothing Ling could do about it as her noble status prevented her from intervening. Jiao's biggest regret is that she could have had the Rounded Keg to herself. She did manage to steal the emergency money (50000 nuyen) hidden away at the bottom of the floorboards Ling told her about. It was meant for Fan in case Jiao had medical bills or some unforeseen obstacle but Fan wouldn't need it now.

Back in her home town, Jiao aka the Princess, continues to market herself to solo runs, all the while maintaining her love of beautiful and precious things. She is very much a stereotypical elf and doesn't try to hide it. She will have sex with anyone to complete a mission or who is hot enough and loves to be the center of attention but doesn't really know what "love" is. Sure she says it all the time, but it's a foreign concept that weighs people down in her mind. A friend like her Mr. Johnson (of which she knows the true name of but never uses it -- Hence the high loyalty), is worth more than any "love".

Some of these runs had her run in tandem to the local doctor crew as she rarely ever saw combat but boy was she good at fixing people up. If your nuyen was good, she didn't care what caused you to be that way unless it bared medical importance. She often asked for medical reasons or to determine if the people could pay, rather than what most people asked out of managing their own political alliegances. Because Princess changed her face so much she never really cared what those were. Morality and what is "good" is only beauty. Healing people is a part of that beauty. Anyone who would disrupt said beauty deserves to die.

Occasionally some of these solo runs were to track a mark from one place to another and gather proof that they were truly going into said place or not going into said place. Princess had a gift for this. Her natural eyes just seemed so much better than most for this task.

In her off time, Jiao spends it at her place trying to make a mini museum of sorts, at an actual museum for ideas, or monitoring local fashions. Jiao is a "beauty" snob and makes no efforts to hide it. Which works out because no one expects the Princess to be a runner. If anyone happens to ask who knows her, she's a Paris Hilton type or a "problem solver", not a runner. It's only a matter of time before a group needs a face though and the beauty of the job or challenge would be impossible to resist....[/spoiler]

[spoiler=The super long version part 1 because 20000 characters max is apparently a thing]

Born in a life of luxury Huan Jiao (In English Jiao Huan -- Last name is first in Chinese) means beautiful joy. The Huan family were a married wage slave couple immersed in corporate politics. It was a loveless marriage, but one of convenience. If it ever broke apart there would be hell to pay for each of them. The pair had an understanding that they could have dalliances on the side as long as each of them knew if kids resulted they could make it work. Chao, the husband, loved this as he had a roving eye, and Ling loved the prestige this allowed her with less work. Sort of like putting up with a person's gambling habit except instead it was her husband's sex addiction.

Jiao is the result of one of those such unions. Specifically the owner of a respectable bar named the Rounded Keg, Fan. Chao (human) ended up leaving his credit stick for dalliances at home and accidentally brought his true credit stick. Not wanting the evening's events trackable as it could bring harm to his political marriage, he decided to bed the bartender. Due to his shame, he never came back to the bar, and therefore never knew of the child he had made. His wife however, who was stalking him, did. <OOC> If you wanted to make Jiao a vat child as well, this could also explain the father's not knowing and the bartender agreed to carry the vat child to term as Ling was infertile. Either way Chao doesn't know.</OOC>He had broken the cardinal rule of telling her of the dalliances before and she ended up switching the credit sticks that night to try to keep him honest. Ling soon frequented the Rounded Keg a lot and helped Fan carry Jiao to term as some strange things started happening around the bar. People kept being able to mysteriously avoid hangovers on occasion. At first, Fan didn't even realize she was pregnant with Chao's child because of no morning sickness, but when she put on the weight it became undeniable and too late to do anything about it.

Based on being raised by an economical bartender, Fan (elf), and being given luxuries by Ling(human), she learned the value of money and the value of looking damn fine. Jiao never really settled for anything less. Even though she rarely ever left the bar, she found ways to extract "interesting" tips from her clientele as a waitress/something more. She carries no shame in this. It is merely a person using their tools like a decker or a street samurai to her. Flashing back Jiao remembers a completely unique situation that could have gone horribly if not for this idea.

It was in the summer of 2064, soon after Jiao turned 13, and three of the corporate drones came in to avoid the heat, completely hammered when they came in. A lot of sex starved Humanis pigs that claimed humanity is the best thing since sliced bread since humanity was the root of all races. Blah blah blah. Jiao didn't really care she only listened enough to make sure she didn't piss them off being an elf and all. Instead of waiting for the hostess to seat them, they took the VIP table. Trying to avoid a scene, Jiao immediately went over and tried to take their order after undoing a few of her buttons on her uniform to try to get more information out of them. The trio of men asked for more beer, and normally a respectable bartender would cut them off but she did not. Instead she gave a hand signal towards Fan that they were going to be her "special guests" and she would rob their racist asses blind and the bouncer would carry their bodies a few blocks away to the seedier part of town. Fan, being an elf, is always happy to teach Humanis pigs a lesson.

As the night went on, Jiao continued supplying them with liquor and one of the men started getting outright handsy and threw a cred stick on the table. "You're the local whrrre right?" And the other two drones laughed as apparently that was some kind of insult. Jiao merely replied "Yes. " This shocked the humanis people but they were really too drunk to sober up at that point. The really drunk guy the one with the cred stick said "So whatcha selling pointy?" As he slurred that out, he stuck his hand out and grabbed her breast rather hard. "Just checking out the merchandise." Politely Jiao removed his filthy hand form her chest. "If you wish to discuss details I'd more than be happy to invite you upstairs. I'm sure polite gentlemen such as yourselves would not want certain things exposed."

With that Jiao turned away and started heading towards the back of the establishment and the three men eagerly followed, drool and beer trail behind them not withstanding. Almost instinctively, Jiao knew which buttons to push on each of the men in turn, completely unaware she was casting the spell Orgy on the trio in turn. The trio then wanted a foursome with herself so she told them to get on the bed. The three of them fit and it was a tight squeeze, but she got out her special lipstick that she was given by Fan as a self defense mechanism. Many of the more attractive women carry laced lipstick that knocks a potential rapist out in case of potential "issues", but she always wanted to use it as a weapon. Draping it over her lips, Jiao then kissed the first man on the bed who immediately passed out. "Guess he couldn't handle his beer..." she mused. One of them more bravado guys said, "I can you fucking elf, kiss me..." And with his request, she gave him a large kiss and he soon too passed out from the beer. Jiao laughed for a moment. Guess he wasn't as big as he thought.

The last man, the strongest of the bunch, was outright angry at this point. "Bitch you're mine!" He grabbed her and then forced her off the bed. She was now on bottom and him on top against the carpet. Glaring daggers down at her, he then attempted to forcibly make out with Jiao, but that too, is indeed a kiss and he collapsed on top of her. With all of her strength she pushed his naked body onto the carpet next to the nightstand.

"That is how you take down three men." She mused to herself. After getting dressed and going through their things, Jiao stole a good 1500 in untraceable credstick money and a few weapons to pay off the bouncer to take the bodies pretty far away. She also found a small dragon keepsake of Lung, she puts on display in her room. Once she was done, she yelled for "Mickey" to come on over and take care of the "drunk" patrons, she applied some perfume and continued on as if it was an ordinary night, because to her it was.

On her 18th birthday, Ling sprang for an introduction into a magic school for Jiao to teach her the basics and help her make something of herself. She had the gift, as evidenced by her intentionally curing hangovers at the bar, and casting orgy on some unsuspecting patrons, but no daughter of Ling's would be stuck at the bar. Damn it, her daughter would "be someone", even if she couldn't do it legally. Ling also invested as much as she could into a real SIN for her without her husband finding out. Where Chao had his women, Ling had her daughter in Jiao. It was also at this school where Jiao got her distinct tattoo on her right leg. She grew tired of all these annoying things like "rules" that the school was attempting to teach her and that the only beautiful women were those without tattoos. After a drunken or deepweed high, she doesn't remember which, she found herself back at a tattoo parlor and got herself inked with the dragon Lung on her right leg and it was a big one too. Stumbling back into the school in the early hours she awoke to find herself puking in her private restroom toilet. "Daaaaaaaaaah fuck." Jiao muttered as she usually was much better at keeping track of her alcohol consumption. Trying to clean herself up for class, she looked down at her leg and saw the rather large dragon tattoo and it finally dawned on her what she did......"OMG...I thought that was a dream." Violently she tried to scrub it off to no avail but then soon found herself massaging it like a sign of pride and love. She always viewed her dragon keepsake as a element of power and she guessed this tattoo was a way of her describing what she could not describe in any other way here at the school. Either that or she was still suffering recoil from Deepweed possession. Regardless, she made the decision to love that thing.

It was towards the end of this schooling, she met a man, Michael Trevase, who introduced her to the world of shadowrunning. He was a corp, as most of her interactions were back then, and he got himself a floozy while away from Mainland China here but she didn't want to "go away". Since she was of the notable sort he couldn't just hire someone to take him out so he tried going to the magic school and finding someone who could "convince" her to go away. Many of the mages laughed at his idocracy and gave him scowls and told him to go away. Jiao, on the other hand, loving a challenge, strolled up to him outside. After suffering through his tale of woe for about 30 minutes, she realized a potential plan for the run. Simply just redirect her energies towards another hot man. Simple enough. It's not like Hong Kong had a shortage in the ritzy area, she just had to show the piss poor lady how to be a seductress like she always knew.

That all changed as soon as she met the mark. Being unique attuned to people's sexual desires from watching them in her youth, her gaydar pinged on this mark rather loudly. It also explained why she was clingy on Trevase, she was trying to be straight versus actually accepting who she was. Now, this was rare in the 2060s. Most people don't give two cents about it, but there were some groups that did. Especially ones that relied on political marriages to keep a corporate power struggle going. After all, her mom was in one of those such unions. Coming up to the mark, she snuggled beside her, a bit closer than most people would normally like, but kept her head outwards towards the men on the dance floor of the local club. "So see anything you like?" She whispered saucily into the mark's ear. It was a simple, genderless request. With her lowcut top and enticing perfume, any straight person would have backed away slightly and then talked a bit about the men or assume Jiao was drunk. However, a lesbian might stammer first, like a man in a sense, unable to not look at the person whispering with the perfume as a guiding aide.

"I uh....He's cute... " The mark said pointing at a random man in the crowd, but not really paying attention to it all. "But really I'm waiting on my boyfriend. No sense in waiting on me. I'm sure he'll be here in a bit." She ran her hands along her half drunk glass nervously. She's probably been nursing the beer for a good half hour wondering what was going on.

"Boyfriend must be a loser." Jiao remarked rather abruptly, casually, and matter of fact. Before she could retort back, she ran her hands along her nursed beer glass as well, giving her the sense of touch over a female's fingers. "He's obviously stood you up for what 30 minutes now...What's your name, hun?" Jiao asked this even though she knew the mark's name, she wanted this to seem like an authentic meeting.

"Nancy DuBois...<ooc>pronounced dew bwah</ooc>" A American from the sounds of things. No French accent remained, in fact it was a little Southern. Must be a long line of corporate inheritance to hide that accent. The woman also obviously worked out and had a shoulder length hair, probably worked for a military corp of some sort like Knight Errant. Instinctively Nancy took to Jiao's fingers like silk running across her body. She shivered a bit and turned her head away from the males and focused almost solely on Jiao. "So what brings you out tonight?" She gulped as she desperately wanted another sip of beer but did not want to break the contact. She hoped maybe Jiao would release her fingers and allow her to take a sip and maybe give her some relief that was clearly pooling up inside of her.

Taking the hint, Jiao released her hands and ordered herself the finest beer off their menu but let her eyes run up and down Nancy's well maintained skin. "Well, I was looking for some rather beautiful company tonight..." She let her voice get slightly quieter at the word company implying that she was more her type this evening than any of the boys.

"You're...?" She wanted to say lesbian but she couldn't even bring herself to say the word she was that far into the closet.

"Bisexual..yes." Jiao replied looking to ease the tension a bit from the mark. Really she didn't have a clue herself as she never really fell in love and more enjoyed the sensation of sex. She wondered if that made her a sociopath for a bit but desperately needed to get that off of her mind and turned towards her and replied. "Known since I was a kid that I was attracted to girls and boys...Just kind of ran with it. " Such a liar, you're beauty sexual and you know it...With a bit more confidence she could be my type... Again more thoughts she didn't want and thankfully Nancy took over.

"Oh...well...like what's your name?" Nancy stammered through. Trying to learn more about this obviously attractive, confident woman. Jiao gave her name the name, Ping Ya, with a bit of sauciness. She did this in case she too became clingy and she misread her. "So ...Ping...maybe we could talk somewhere more...*erm* private...so you and I can discuss Michael a bit more privately. I might have some work if you're interested...being such an attractive woman as you are."

Keeping with her happiness bouncy seductive persona, she blew some air against Nancy's ear as she spoke. "Of course...if that's what you'd like to discuss Nancy." By phrasing it like this, she also left it open to "discussing" other matters. Soon the duo marched up to her room, where Jiao activated a lot of the toys that were loaned to her by Michael to make sure none of the other corps had bugs in her room.

"See completely private...No one can hear us Nancy." She commented as she turned off the devices. "Last one.." Jiao noted quibly to the younger counterpart. As she moved towards the center of the room, and consequently towards the bed Nancy then immediately grabbed Jiao's face and kissed her rather forcefully and Jiao went along with it. Rather enjoying it actually.

"Oh how I've been wanting to do that with a female for so damn long." Nancy's bluntness surprised Jiao. She expected Nancy to try to lightly kiss her not a full on makeout session. Apparently this woman has kept her desires hidden a while. Nancy attempted to move her hands onto Jiao's body to which Jiao politely stopped. As much as she wanted to sleep with the woman to secure her trust, this would do nothing about her boyfriend problems.

"First, we figure out your boyfriend issues, then we can play around." Jiao commented as she used her silky smooth hands to slightly push away Nancy's. Tapping the bed, she invited Nancy to sit on it. "Oh don't worry about that...My parents will just hire a hit man to kill him for standing me up. No worries. I'll just tell them tonight he was a jerk, which he was."

She said that rather casually as if Michael had broken an arrangement and deserved to die. Men and their lies...Always getting in tangled webs in order to get a quick win...Gotta play the long game in sexual matters or you get fucked...literally

"Honey if being a jerk was a punishable offense, you'd be dead many times over for leading him on that you're interested in him sexually. It's obvious you're a corp looking for a face mate instead of a marriage partner. Anyone with a decent gaydar knows you're in the closet. " Jiao commented back with the same level of fact and tone as Nancy did to her. "Instead how about you say you mutually broke it off and we find a way for you to have your cake and eat it too."

Nancy gulped and recoiled slightly scooting backwards..."How did you know???!?!?!?! How...?!?!?!" She hopped off the bed and towards a corner of the room. "I mean I did everything my image consultant said...Growing out my hair, wearing a skirt, doing my makeup, watching fashion trends...Everything...when all I want to do is sit and home and watch a sports game with a girl beside me." Crouching down, she put her hands in her face like she wanted to cry.

Slowly gliding off the bed, Jiao curled up next to the distraught woman and wrapped her arms around her shoulder. "I'm well gifted at this type of thing, but that's beside the point. The more you accept yourself for who you are, the more you can find other women like you." She snuggled up against the mark letting her cry against her shoulder.

Subtly taking the hint, Nancy did and through her tears Jiao could understand something about how her family would be in ruins if she didn't marry a corporate guy in a certain amount of time as the corporate by laws required it or she'd have nothing. It was a this point Jiao knew her way in. Touching her cheek, she politely turned her eyes towards her own. "Have you heard the term, beard?" Nancy tilted her head back and forth and Jiao knew the answer but waited for her anyway. "It's when a gay guy and lesbian date each other to give the world the appearance of being straight. "

"Oh! You mean someone like me?" Nancy's eyes perked up. She believed there may be a way out after all. Jiao nodded to the now pliable mark. "Let's get you cleaned up, we need to head to a gay friendly bar, like Temptation, and get your evening and life going right."

"Those exist! Oh my gawd! Oh my gawd!" Breaking the connection, Nancy reverted back to almost a younger version of herself and went into the bathroom to fix her mascara and such and came back out still looking like a million bucks but like she was in the closet. "Let's add a few final touches..."

Normally Jiao wouldn't help out a mark this much, but Jiao for some internal reason wanted this girl to be open to herself to experiences. Jiao mused and picked up a local Hong Kong magazine for the room. "Find a hair style you like in there and wish you had...(slight pause). It will be worth it." Jiao made the decision to use the makeover spell on the girl. If she's going to go all out and get her a beard, she might as well make her happy in her own skin.

After a few minutes, the lady went for a very short almost buzz cut type appearance which more than suited her looks. With a snap of her fingers, Jiao made it happen. "You're a...Wowza..." Nancy went back and ran her hands through her almost non existent hair. "And you picked me?" She asked incredulously.

"What can I say?" Remarked Jiao with a bit of humor. "I have a thing for girls in distress and not showing off their true beauty." First true thing you've probably said all night. After switching into the pants and top from Jiao's closet they went to the gay bar and found her a beard for the night and ended up back in Jiao's room to celebrate and how to tell the parents.

"Now that is how you have a good night!" Nancy exclaimed rather excitedly at Jiao as they stumbled into her room. The alcohol had made her a bit louder and they found themselves two attractive women in the room. In order to cement that Ping was trustworthy and she wanted an excuse to use the Orgy spell on herself, Jiao roughly kissed the girl. Nature took its course and she helped the girl understand what she was missing by hiding in the closet. She tried to return the favor and she actually wasn't bad at it. In fact she was good so she didn't have to use the spell and forgot. Either that or the beer she told herself. Jiao tends to blame a lot on beer so she always practices moderation now.

The next morning the duo turned and looked at themselves, "Well...This was fun..." Jiao let the air hang as she knew she had to say goodbye to shower and get to class. It was a really fun night of sex and mayhem and she got paid for it. "Let me guess..You have to go? " Nancy replied with the same bit of uneasiness.

"Yeah...I do. I have to get back to some things and you, darling, have a life to fix with your beard and parents. I wouldn't want Michael being killed over your issues now yes..." Jiao continued with the same tone.

Happily the girl mused on. "Oh right!" Reaching for the clothes Jiao lent her she said "I'm sure we can trade right? I bet my clothes are more expensive and towards your tastes..." She threw them on rather quickly trying to give her no chance to object but Jiao wouldn't have anyway. "Oh and Ping?" Jiao turned her head toward the mark. "Take this..." She opened her large feminine purse and a small hand crossbow peaked out. "My parents always find me a weak little thing and assume I can't fire a crossbow but in reality I've been secretly firing their gun collection for years. I figure you might have more of a use for it than I." She ran her hands almost seductively down her arms.

Good god what have I done, I actually want to bed this girl again...which is rather rare for me.

Nodding in thankfulness, Jiao took the purse. "I'll call it Nancy, so if I ever have to fire her, I'll remind myself of your kindness as well. " In reality Jiao made a pact herself that day. She would never ever allow herself to fire a combat spell or a weapon unless she had to because it would remind her of this incident.

The duo then departed and she reported to Michael a mission well done, all with 2 minutes to spare before her boring Path of the Wheel stuff she was doing. She respected the values of beauty that the group gave but ugh those lectures were so boring and unbeautiful. They should do something better.

Michael Trevase ended up being a corporate Johnson who set her up with all sorts of solo runs without going through a fixer. She worked as a fixer a bit with him for a time, meeting another fixer in the game, but mainly she loved the solo run. As she leveraged her magic she routinely got paid to do the advanced scouting for other people's runs in stral Space, or to extract information from a pliable target through less obtrusive means. This helped maintain her lifestyle but moved her further and further away from Hong Kong and she spent a solid year in China, picking up a few bits and pieces of the language. Occasionally, she even got paid just for sex and the orgy spell which she loved.

Her favorite run involved a man paying her to electrocute her with stockings and have a picture of it for his own recollection. The man was an electricity mage/addict and could never quite shock himself though and wanted to see if someone could do it. Sure enough Jiao got the shot for the sicko but it was some of the easiest money she ever made. But when she took it, she discovered the inherent electricity running through everyone and wondered if that is what she tapped into to be able to notice and read people well that everyone has their own "current" so to speak.

After that year in China, she received a communique that her mother Fan had died. She came back as fast as she could, but it was too little too late. Social "nobles" and people with purchasing power had inflitrated the bar. Because of her extensive use of the makeover spell in her prior runs and not having a picture of a childhood, she looked like an imposter when trying to claim her own birthright in the bar. Sure she had the dragon tattoo she had gotten in her rebellious youth but it was distinctive. Anyone could copy that. She had nothing to prove it. Sure Ling knew it was her, but there was nothing Ling could do about it as her noble status prevented her from intervening. Jiao's biggest regret is that she could have had the Rounded Keg to herself. She did manage to steal the emergency money (50000 nuyen) hidden away at the bottom of the floorboards Ling told her about. It was meant for Fan in case Jiao had medical bills or some unforeseen obstacle but Fan wouldn't need it now.

Back in her home town, Jiao aka the Princess, continues to market herself to solo runs, all the while maintaining her love of beautiful and precious things. She is very much a stereotypical elf and doesn't try to hide it. She will have sex with anyone to complete a mission or who is hot enough and loves to be the center of attention but doesn't really know what "love" is. Sure she says it all the time, but it's a foreign concept that weighs people down in her mind. A friend like her Mr. Johnson (of which she knows the true name of but never uses it -- Hence the high loyalty), is worth more than any "love". The closest thing was Nancy, but she tries to avoid thinking about that.

Some of these runs had her run in tandem to the local doctor crew as she rarely ever saw combat but boy was she good at fixing people up. If your nuyen was good, she didn't care what caused you to be that way unless it bared medical importance. She often asked for medical reasons or to determine if the people could pay, rather than what most people asked out of managing their own political alliegances. Because Princess changed her face so much she never really cared what those were. Morality and what is "good" is only beauty. Healing people is a part of that beauty. Anyone who would disrupt said beauty deserves to die.

Occasionally some of these solo runs were to track a mark from one place to another and gather proof that they were truly going into said place or not going into said place. Princess had a gift for this. Her natural eyes just seemed so much better than most for this task.

In her off time, Jiao spends it at her place trying to make a mini museum of sorts, at an actual museum for ideas, or monitoring local fashions. Jiao is a "beauty" snob and makes no efforts to hide it. Which works out because no one expects the Princess to be a runner. If anyone happens to ask who knows her, she's a Paris Hilton type or a "problem solver", not a runner. It's only a matter of time before a group needs a face though and the beauty of the job or challenge would be impossible to resist....

<OOC> If I get some time I'll write one of a corp run where she stole a datachip from a corp and just walked right out the front door. That is a good one. I also agree it's Lung I just don't like editing posts. Oh and I still am behind on the ordeal intro for her but I will catch up on that.

Just please don't murder the player for length. I can ramble at times.</OOC>

Jiao knows Ms. Wu from back in her shadow running days in Hong Kong. She normally operates out of a beauty parlor that Jiao frequented as a child before she learned the makeover spell. Occasionally before she went to Hong Kong she would go by for the latest bits of gossip and practice her Chinese and she would tell her about problems that corporate men and women had in the shop and she would fix them. She met Ms. Wu from her original corporate man in the backstory. Normally when she feels a need to gossip she will let them go do her nails or some such and just listen in.

<ooc> great I like this. What's her Beauty parlor's name?Anything notable about her personality or appearance?How about her meta-type?Let's make this contact a good source for Corporate gossip in Hong Kong. Given the above I would assume her little manicure shop is in a nice part of town easily accessible by corporate wageslaves, either in a high end residential neighborhood or corporate business area. Perhaps Victoria Peak (high-end residential where your apt is) or Aberdeen neighborhood in the Southern Coast district (corporate enclave, where the Wuxing sky tower is).

take your pick!

+1 karma for your contact post!<ooc>

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Live in the SF Bay Area and looking for a group? PM me we have a slot open!

<ooc> this is now added to our Realmworks campaign as a point of interest. <ooc>

------------General info------------------

The Smiling Beauty Salon

The Wéixiào dì měinǚ ("Smiling Beauty" in Chinese) Beauty Parlor located in Aberdeen neighborhood in the Southern Coast district of Hong Kong caters to the many corporate wageslaves that work in the area. It is busy first thing in the morning, at lunch times and afterwork and closed on weekends. Operated by Mr's Wu for the past 20 + years it has become something of a fixture in the small corporate enclave. A small, cramped salon where it's easy to overhear conversations Wéixiào is a great place to collect corporate gossip for those in the know.

It's rumored that Mr's Wu aggregates the more juicy gossip and offers it to her more loyal customers depending upon the level of "tip" they leave.

----------personal contact info--------------Jiao knows Ms. Wu from back in her shadow running days in Hong Kong. She normally operates out of a beauty parlor that Jiao frequented as a child before she learned the makeover spell. Occasionally before she went to Hong Kong she would go by for the latest bits of gossip and practice her Chinese and she would tell her about problems that corporate men and women had in the shop and she would fix them. She met Ms. Wu from her original corporate man in the backstory. Normally when she feels a need to gossip she will let them go do her nails or some such and just listen in.

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Live in the SF Bay Area and looking for a group? PM me we have a slot open!